  Looking off over what used to be the Aral Sea, the raised land to the left used to be the shore. - Credit: UNEP | Flickr.com
By Raushan Valikhanov
IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis
NUKUS (IDN) – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s flying tour of the Aral Sea area has highlighted the woes caused by one of the greatest environmental catastrophes ever recorded. He witnessed the shocking sight when he flew over it on April 4, 2010.
The view underscores the need for collective action to save the planet's resources, he said in Nukus, the sixth-largest city in Uzbekistan, and the capital of the autonomous Karakalpakstan Republic with a population of 260,000.
Lying between Kazakhstan in the north and Karakalpakstan in the south, the Aral Sea was once the world's fourth largest inland sea. It is now a quarter of the size it was 50 years ago.
The Aral Sea roughly translates as ‘Sea of Islands’, referring to more than 1,500 islands that once dotted its waters. Humans have made use of the waters of the Aral basin for thousands of years, borrowing from its two major rivers: the Amu Darya, which flows into the Aral Sea from the south; and the Syr Darya, which reaches the sea at its north end. As the 20th century began, irrigated agriculture in the basin was still being conducted at a sustainable level, according to knowledgeable sources.
The Aral Sea’s problems began in the 1960s and 1970s with the diversion of the main rivers that feed it to provide for cotton cultivation in arid Soviet Central Asia. The surface of the Aral Sea once measured 66 100 square km (25 521 square miles).
By 1987, about 60 per cent of the Aral Sea's volume had been lost, its depth had declined by 14 m (45 feet), and its salt concentration had doubled, killing the commercial fishing trade. Wind storms became toxic, carrying fine grains of clay and salts deposited on exposed sea floor. Life expectancies in the districts near the sea are significantly lower than in the surrounding areas.
The sea is now some 25 percent of the size it was 50 years ago and has broken into two parts, the North Aral Sea and the South Aral Sea. Re-engineering along the Syr Darya River delta in the north will retain water in the North Aral Sea, thereby drying the South Aral Sea completely, perhaps within 15 years, knowledgeable sources say.
“It was shocking,” Ban told reporters in Nukus after a helicopter tour of the area with Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan, the latest stop on his visit to Central Asia.
“It is clearly one of the worst environmental disasters of the world... It really left with me a profound impression, one of sadness that such a mighty sea has disappeared,” he stated.
The Secretary-General said that, standing on the shores of a vanished sea, he could not see anything except a “cemetery of ships marooned in the sand.” As a result of the disaster, people are getting sick, the land is poisoned, and storms blow dust and salt as far as the North Pole.
“It was a vivid testament to what [...] happens [...] when we waste our common natural resources, when we neglect our environment, when we mismanage our environment.”
Speaking later at an official dinner in the capital, Tashkent, the Secretary-General noted that the aerial tour reminded him of flying over Africa's Lake Chad in 2008. “It, too, has shrunk to a small fraction of its former size, with disastrous effects on millions of people.
“I think this is a collective responsibility, not only for the nations of Central Asia but the whole world,” he said. “I was very encouraged by what I learned. All the measures the Government is taking to deal with the effects of the disaster.”
Ban voiced appreciation for the international fund for saving the Aral Sea which was initiated by the five leaders of Central Asia, and pledged the UN's assistance for their efforts.
“We should become better stewards in managing the environment,” Ban stated. “We must deliver this Planet Earth to our succeeding generations, so that they can live in a more hospitable, in a more environmentally sustainable way.
“That is a moral and political imperative,” he stressed.
The ecosystem of the Aral Sea and the river deltas feeding into it has been nearly destroyed, not least because of the much higher salinity. The land around the Aral Sea is also heavily polluted, and the people living in the area are suffering from a lack of fresh water, as well as from a number of other health problems.
The receding sea has left huge plains covered with salt and toxic chemicals, which are picked up, carried away by the wind as toxic dust, and spread to the surrounding area; the population around the Aral Sea now shows high rates of certain forms of cancer and lung diseases, as well as other diseases. Crops in the region are also destroyed by salt being deposited onto the land.
The United Nations has estimated that the sea will essentially disappear by 2020 if nothing is done to reverse its decline.
The destruction of the Aral Sea ecosystem has been sudden and severe, according to the Aral Sea Foundation. Beginning in the 1960s, agricultural demands have deprived this large Central Asian salt lake of enough water to sustain itself, and it has shrunk rapidly.
Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and other Central Asian states use this water to grow cotton and other export crops, in the face of widespread environmental consequences, including fisheries loss, water and soil contamination, and dangerous levels of polluted airborne sediments.
The devotion to irrigated agriculture had other direct effects as well, according to the Aral Foundation. Much ecologically sensitive land in the river deltas was converted to cropland, and pesticide use was heavy throughout the Aral basin, resulting in heavy contaminant concentrations in the sea. Over irrigation caused salt buildup in many agricultural areas.
By the beginning of the 1990s, the surface area of the Aral had shrunk by nearly half, and the volume was down by seventy-five percent. A host of secondary effects began to appear. Regional climate became more continental, shortening the growing season and causing some farmers to switch from cotton to rice, which demanded even more diverted water.
The exposed area of former seabed was now over 28,000 square kilometers, from which winds picked up an estimated 43 million tons of sediments laced with salts and pesticides, with devastating health consequences for surrounding regions.
These contaminated Aral dust storms have been reported as far away as the Arctic and Pakistan. Respiratory illnesses were particularly common, and throat cancers burgeoned. Regional vegetation loss may have increased albedo, possible reducing precipitation.
Central Asian Republics signed an agreement in 1992 pledging efforts toward Aral rehabilitation, but little action has been taken. Another meeting, in January 1994, resulted in offers to reduce water consumption, and promises of money for an Aral fund. For the present, the Aral continues to shrink, and may soon be lifeless. Its future prospects are uncertain, the foundation notes with concern. (IDN-InDepthNews/06.04.2010)
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